


Game Not Over

by jessikast



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 10:57:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8888227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessikast/pseuds/jessikast
Summary: "The Library felt the wrongness like an itch under its skin – or rather, the part of the Library that had spent four months as Ray and knew what having skin felt like felt it as an itch under its skin."
Post 2x08 "The Librarians and the Point of Salvation" the Library takes Ezekiel's lack of memory about the experience into it's own hands.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jenett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenett/gifts).



The Library felt the wrongness like an itch under its skin – or rather, the part of the Library that had spent four months as Ray and knew what having skin _felt_ like felt it as an itch under its skin. The rest of the Library felt it as a mis-shelved book, an inaccurate translation, a Library of Congress classification where Dewey Decimal was used, _information being censored_.

When the Library was Ray, and Ray was the Library, he had said that Flynn was his best friend, and this was true. But the Library was vast and had room enough for the other Librarians to be its best friends too. They were facts of its existence and if the Library had the capacity to feel possessive it felt that way over its Librarians. Where there was something wrong it was enough to turn its nebulous and far-reaching attention into a focus. And when the Library focussed on something, things tended to _happen_.

****

“This says there’s been a break-in at museum. The Talisman of Mmm..neo..seenee?” said Cassandra, one finger trailing over the newspaper article that had appeared in the book.

Jake leant over her shoulder. “Mnemosyne was a figure in Greek mythology. She was the mother of the Muses and the personification of memory. Was it the only thing stolen?”

“Huh, must be a glitch.” Jenkins walked past on his way to reshelve books. “That’s an old article – that talisman was recovered…oh, two or three Librarians ago. It’s down in the archives.”

“Should we check it out?” asked Eva. “If it’s in the book maybe we should make sure it’s still down where it’s meant to be. Better safe than sorry.”

“Who wants to spend the day getting dusty in the archives?” said Ezekiel. “Check THIS one out. Mysterious creatures appearing in Bali. Bali! Tropical getaway, here we come!” The others drifted over to read the article and even Eve was making vague noises about how nice some sunshine would be.

The Library would have sighed if it could have.

****

“All right, who’s been messing around in my workshop?” Jenkins was frowning, a small vial gingerly clasped in a glove that made an oven mitt look small. “This wasn’t there yesterday, and it’s _not_ the sort of thing you should be…messing around with!”

“Is it…glowing?” said Cassandra, reaching towards the vial. Jenkins snatched it back.

“Careful! One drop, and who knows what might happen! This is – according to the label, and don’t think I won’t analyse your handwriting to find who wrote it – synthetic water from the River Lethe. The real stuff is extraordinarily potent. And doesn’t actually tend to glow, so whoever cooked this up did something wrong somewhere anyway.”

“Why, what does it do?” Eva was moving to put herself between the vial and the Librarians.

“It erases memory, doesn’t it?” said Jake.

“Erases, creates, moves it all sideways for a while…depending on how you prepare it, it’s rather versatile,” said Jenkins. “Actually, if this _is_ synthetic Lethe water it’s ingenious…”

“Huh, is that bottle _diamond_?” said Ezekiel, from over Jenkins’ shoulder. Jenkins jumped. The glove fumbled. The vial dropped. The stopper flew from the body of the vial and Eve threw herself on top of Jenkins and Ezekiel, intercepting the splash of water.

The Library was proud of its Guardian, and on the whole thought she did an exemplary job of keeping its Librarians safe. However, there were times when it thought she could be _slightly_ overzealous.

“Eve! Eve, do you know who you are?” Jake was saying loudly, while Cassandra hovered trying to help Eve without touching any of the water. Jenkins looked shaken and Ezekiel had found a pair of chopsticks (18th century, made of the wood of a tree which technically had never existed) to pick up the vial.

“Synthetic diamond,” he said, squinting as the last drop of liquid fell onto the floor.

“I’m fine, I think…” Eve said as she stood.

_Of course you are,_ thought the Library. _That particular formula was designed to bring back a specific set of memories in a specific person. Who is not you._ Briefly, the Library missed having a head. And hair on a head. It felt it might be satisfying to tear it out.

****

Jenkins muttered titles as he shelved a pile of books. “You and Your Memory…The Mnemomist…Quantum Memory Power…Metaphors of Memory…Your Memory Palace and You…”

“Oooh, Sprite!” said Ezekiel, sitting at the table where, five minutes before, there had been a carefully curated set of reading material. “And Timtams! I didn’t think you could get these in America!”

_Well, it wasn’t easy_ , thought the Library.

****

“Heads up!” said Ray, throwing a small crystal disc to Ezekiel.

“Ray!”

“Ray?”

“You!”

“Buddy!”

“Can’t stay, corporeal manifestations take SO much out of me, love you guys, you’re the best, bye!” said Ray as he dissolved back into a golden shimmer that dispersed into the shelves.

“Ezekiel, what was that…Ezekiel?” Eve’s voice turned serious when Ezekiel didn’t reply. He was staring transfixed at the disc. Jake shook his shoulder and he moved with it, but didn’t look up.

“Jenkins, do you recognise what this is?”

Jenkins peered at Ezekiel’s hand. “It looks like the Talisman of Mnemosyne. How peculiar…”

“That’s that one in the article a few weeks ago, right?” said Cassandra. “Just before we went to Bali.”

“Memory stuff,” said Jake. “What’s it doing to him?”

“Is he okay?” said Eve. “Ezekiel? Should we take it off him?”

Jenkins frowned. “I’m not sure. The talisman isn’t inherently malicious. It was a memory _restorer_ – it was used for things like improving recall. There’s a story of a great scholar who was afflicted with what we would now call Alzheimer’s Disease and his most beloved student managed to get this to him at the end of his life so he could finish writing his great thesis…oh, I’d say it’s safer to let it do what it started doing. Who knows what would happen if you took it away too soon?”

“Besides, it was _the Library_ who gave it to him,” said Cassandra. “Surely it wouldn’t do anything to hurt us?”

Eve was frowning, but relaxing slightly. “Restoring memories…that doesn’t sound bad. But what does he have to restore?”

Suddenly Ezekiel hiccupped, and his hand flew open. The talisman dropped to the floor with a clunk and he sprang back. “Oh my god, you guys. You died. I saved you! But you died… so many times.” He was turning pale and sinking to the floor. Cassandra darted in and wrapped her arms around him as he sank to the floor, eyes squeezed shut and alternatively laughing and sobbing.

“The game- “ “The quantum computer and DARPA-“ Jake and Eve said at the same moment.

“He’s remembering it all at once,” said Cassandra. “We only remember one round but he’s getting everything at the same time. It’s going to be tough to process…”

Eve kicked the talisman across the floor with the side of her boot, and kneeled down next to Ezekiel. Jake had dropped down and put a comforting hand on Ezekiel’s knee. Eve reached out one hand and patted his shoulder tentatively until she fell against Ezekiel with a surprised huff of air when one of his hands darted out and pulled her into the huddle with the others.

Comforted by his friends, Ezekiel’s breathing calmed and evened out, but his eyes didn’t open. “Wow. So that happened.”

****

A few hours later, Ezekiel walked into a room empty except for a stack of books. “That,” he said loudly to the air, “was a _real dick move_.”

The Library didn’t reply.

“Thanks,” Ezekiel said more quietly. He rested one hand on a shelf for a moment before turning to walk back out to the others, cheerful persona already back in place. “I vote fish and chips for dinner! And I win all the votes tonight! Hey Jenkins, can you open the door to this one little beach up near Port Douglas, they do the BEST chips…”

****

The Library was satisfied. The wrongness had been corrected. The book was on the right shelf, the classification were in order and Ezekiel Jones wasn’t being censored any more.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi Jenett! Happy Yuletide!
> 
> Episodes 2x05 and 2x08 really made an impact on me, and I felt so keenly that it was deeply unfair that Ezekiel didn't retain the memory of his FANTASTIC character development. I've tried a fix-it here, hope you enjoy!


End file.
